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Khaled Hegazy replaces the embers on a hookah pipe as customers enjoy some hookah at Cairo Nights. Photo: The Chronicle

There are 17 hookah lounges in San Francisco, but before long, they could all be doneski — or at least hookah-less.

It seems that public health department officials are getting serious and quickly nearing their desire to shut down hookah lounges, “whose owners, they say, have refused to obey state and local laws that ban indoor smoking, despite mailed and in-person warnings over the past year.”

A bunch of hookah lounge owners are scheduled to appear before the health department this week, and if they don’t comply with the law — because indoor smoking in restaurants/cafes/bars is illegal, you see — then they’ll be subject to fines and closure.

So get that hookah in while you can. Read the whole article for more details on how hookah lounges have evaded the anti-smoking regulations that have been in place since the ’90s.